Commitment paying off

Thursday

Jun 12, 2014 at 4:27 AM

Hanson of Kirksville named 2014 tennis athlete of the year

Michael Selecky @mexicoledger.com news

KIRKSVILLE - The Kirksville tennis team enjoyed unprecedented success this past season when they took home the team district championship. Their roster was jammed with experience, talent and commitment.

But there was one player that stood above the rest of his teammates.

Tyler Hanson was the No. 1 ranked player on the team from the start of the season all the way until the end and used that with his leadership to be named the 2014 All-Express Boys Tennis Player of the Year.

“I think a lot of the guys on the team could have been considered, so it’s honor to be named,” Hanson said.

After last season where Hanson sat behind Austin Motley on the roster, Hanson took the offseason to dedicate himself to tennis. With some added inner motivation and strong desire to take his game to the next level, Hanson began his work to become the No. 1 player on the team going into this past season.

“He has worked really hard the last couple of years,” Kirksville head coach Lee Riley said. “He has committed himself 100 percent to tennis.”

That commitment and dedication saw him travel to Quincy over the winter to further improve his craft.

But before that, Hanson asked for a basket of balls from Riley to practice over the summer after the 2013 spring season ended. Where other athletes took time off and pursued other sports or other goals over the summer, the summer of 2013 saw Hanson going around to different courts practicing and working on his game.

“I gave him a basket of balls over the summer and I always saw him out in the summer time practicing,” Riley said.

“Practicing over the summer, that really helped me this season,” Hanson said. “I was out a lot a nights serving with the lights on the courts.”

That dedication to his craft helped, but something that caught Riley’s eye even more was his dedication to the team.

“In his spare time he’d play tennis and would always encouraging the kids on the team,” Riley said. “He gave his number to the other kids so that they could get together and practice this summer. He wants other kids to get better this season.”

His overall record for this past season in singles was 13-9. Being the No. 1 player on the team meant he had to face other teams’ No. 1 night in and night out.

But he didn’t hide from that, Hanson embraced the challenge and used it to spur the team to greater heights.

“I really saw it in our last match against St. Dominic,” Riley said. “He took to the court and beat their No. 1 and set the tone and everybody else followed him.”

Pairing Hanson with Ethan Murphy provided Kirksville with a potent doubles team and they went 13-5 in the season. It took some time for Murphy and Hanson to gel, but when it finally clicked, it clicked.

“He played with Austin (Motley) last year so he knew what it was like to play No. 1 doubles,” Hanson said. “We’ve actually played before when we were little in a tournament so it was great to come back and play doubles in high school. We made a good team.“

Now Kirksville will get their No. 1 back next season in Hanson and are looking to make an even deeper run in the postseason next year.

“I think it’ll roll over well,” Hanson said. “We have a bunch of now seniors who stepped up this past year. I think we’ll have an advantage over some teams next year.”

“It’ll be an exciting time next year,” Riley said. “Hopefully he’ll be conference champion.”

Hanson has the inner motivation driving him to become better but Hanson is still committed to not only getting better but helping the team improve for the coming seasons.

“He’s got some inside motivation and he’s committed to tennis completely,” Riley said. “He’s grown tremendously and wants to be successful at tennis and show some people what he’s capable of.”

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